The Actelion Business Center is the heart of the Actelion Center in Allschwil, Switzerland. It offers 350 offices for employees from central functions.The building, a creation of the Basel architects’ office of Herzog & de Meuron, stands for innovation and openness and thus stands for the core values of Actelion. The futuristic architectural concept symbolizes the company's future-oriented business activity. The building combines functionality and creativity. It offers employees an inspiring working environment that fosters communication.

Communication as an underlying themeThe architectural concept is guided by the underlying theme of communication. The open, angular steel construction consists of supports stacked on top of each other. Every floor is laid out differently. This fundamental principle is based on a strict regularity: in the four corner points, where the “office beams” meet, are the core zones through which access is provided to the whole building. Here, elevators and stairs link the various floors with each other. This gives rise to natural communication zones where employees' paths cross. In these zones there are kitchens, meeting rooms and training rooms. Seating islands invite people to sit down and exchange ideas. The glass facades allow communication through eye contact and underline the transparency, both inwards and outwards, as well as upwards and downwards. To ensure that this openness is consistent throughout, all installations were laid in the floors and ceilings, and it was decided to avoid any ducts and piping in walls.Steel construction as an architecturalThe load-bearing structure of the building consists of steel frames measuring a total of 3.8 kilometers in length. Altogether about 2’500 tons of steel were processed. The steel bars that make up the framework are straight, K-shaped or X-shaped, depending on the static requirements. For fire safety reasons, the steel construction is plastered and painted white. In this way, the characteristic steel elements underline the light visual identity of the building.The art of botanyThe greening concept of botanical artist Tita Giese takes up the transparency of the building. There is a mix of various kinds of ivy and horsetail in the shaded outdoor zones around the entrance area. Inside the building are three carpets of ferns, ivy, low-growing palms and Anthurias that spread outdoors, thus blurring the boundary between inside and outside.In sunny areas the roofs are planted with prairie grass, which changes in the course of the seasons from light green to dark red, retaining this color in the winter. The other roof areas were provided with a plant substrate that grows independently according to climatic conditions. Depending on the sun and rainfall, a low-growing carpet of stonecrops alternate with unplanted gravel areas.Energy conceptThe energy concept of the building is based on the combined use of electricity, natural gas and renewable energy in the form of solar power. The aim is to meet the demand for heating and cooling in a way that conserves resources and is largely carbon neutral.